On the oceanfront stretch of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, residents of the Porsche Design Tower do not park their cars in a conventional garage. Instead, the garage rides upstairs with them. Residents pull their vehicles into a cylindrical glass elevator that lifts both driver and car more than 60 stories into the air. The elevator—or "Dezervator," as the building's developer, Gil Dezer, calls it—deposits the vehicle directly into a private sky garage attached to the apartment, where the car sits behind a glass wall like a display in an auto showroom, visible from the living room. The 644-foot high-rise, whose 132 condos are priced as high as $47.5 million, was designed to embody the aesthetics of Porsche engineering: a sleek, metallic building whose curved glass balconies mirror the shape and aerodynamics of the iconic German sports car.

The Porsche Design Tower is part of a rapidly growing segment of the luxury real estate market known as branded residences—apartment buildings designed in partnership with global luxury brands. It represents a striking evolution in modern real estate, where a new class of apartment buildings functions less like traditional housing and more like immersive, three-dimensional brand experiences.

"For brands, standalone residences provide an opportunity to expand geographically without the operational intensity of hotel development—and provide an additional revenue stream," says Riyan Itani, founder of Global Branded Residences, in an interview.

From the sail-shaped Aston Martin Residences overlooking Biscayne Bay in Miami to Fendi-designed apartments in Dubai, high-end brands once associated exclusively with sports cars, couture, and fine jewelry are increasingly lending their names and design expertise to real estate.

Luxury brands increasingly see real estate as the next frontier of brand immersion, says Markus Schreyer, a branding expert at Vanderbilt University, in an interview. High-end labels are "no longer only selling fashion, watches, or cars; they are selling access to a community, aesthetics, service philosophy, and emotional experience," Schreyer says. "In many ways, this is the evolution from 'brand' to 'ecosystem.'"

Just a two-minute walk from the Porsche Design Tower, developers are constructing the Bentley Residences, where condos also promise car elevators and diamond-pattern detailing inspired by the automaker's quilted leather seats. In Dubai, the Armani Hotel translates Giorgio Armani's minimalist fashion aesthetic into muted color palettes, leather-covered walls, and zebrawood panels.

Meanwhile, new Manhattan residences offered by Nobu, the upscale Japanese restaurant chain, come with spacious balconies, 16-foot ceilings, and woodblock art by modern master Takatoshi Kuronuma—but even if you purchase one, you will still have to wait an hour for a table at the Nobu restaurant downstairs. Nobu also has developments in Abu Dhabi, Los Cabos, and Al Marjan Island, with additional projects underway in Cairo and Tulum.

What began as a niche experiment in luxury real estate has evolved into a fast-growing sector of the global property market—valued at approximately $67 billion, according to Sotheby's International Realty. By the end of 2025, there were 1,907 combined active and pipeline branded residential developments worldwide, according to industry research firm Global Branded Residences. Upcoming projects include developers partnering with brands ranging from fashion labels like Elie Saab to automakers like Bugatti and Mercedes-Benz.

If those projects are built as planned, the supply of branded real estate could more than double over the next decade. The expansion comes amid a broader surge in ultra-luxury property development since the pandemic, which reshaped wealthy buyers' preferences toward larger residences with integrated amenities and branded service standards.

"Non-hospitality brands are gaining market share, and the branded residences sector in general shows no real signs of slowing down or weakness," says Jason Payne, CEO and founder of The Branded Residences Hub, a consultancy company for the sector.

Hotel giants pioneered branded residences—now automakers and fashion houses are catching up

The branded residences industry originated with hotels. For decades, luxury hotel companies such as Four Seasons and The Ritz-Carlton have sold apartments within their hotels, granting wealthy homeowners access to amenities including housekeeping, concierge services, fine-dining restaurants, and spas. The concept primarily appealed to high-net-worth individuals who valued hotel-level services alongside real estate ownership. Hotel-branded residences have historically accounted for the large majority of the sector's pipeline, though non-hotel brands are now eroding that share.

What is new is the category of brands now entering the market. Automakers, fashion houses, and jewelry brands increasingly view real estate as a way to extend their identity beyond products.

"A house is a very big emotional product that you buy in your life," says Ziad El Chaar, CEO of Dar Global, a Dubai-based luxury real estate developer specializing in co-branded projects. "And if I am a brand, I want to own that feeling."

For brands, these projects represent a chance to embed themselves into customers' everyday lives on a permanent basis. "When I sell you a Missoni or Pagani apartment, you are living in Pagani all of your life, and you will tell this to your friends. They will visit you, they will see the lifestyle of Pagani," El Chaar says, adding that customers will derive an ongoing experiential connection from the brand.

Behind the high-brow posturing, an entire ecosystem has emerged to connect developers with prestige brands. Historically, developers approached luxury companies directly for such projects, but over the past five years, many partnerships have been brokered by consultants who pitch the concept of brand-extension residences to both developers and the sellers of marquee products.

However, the push from developers alone does not fully account for the sector's boom. Social media has given the wealthy something the French monarchs at the Palace of Versailles never possessed—a real-time global audience numbering in the millions. Unlike a palace that impressed only its direct visitors, a single post from a Bentley-branded penthouse can generate millions of likes and comments within minutes—because, as the implicit logic goes, what is the point of a $40 million condo if no one is watching?

Social media turbocharges demand

In a short, minute-long video that has racked up nearly 50 million views, one resident of the Porsche Design Tower films himself pulling into the building's car elevator in his white Porsche. He drives onto a circular platform, and the glass capsule closes around the car.

The caption on the video reads: "pulling into my $7M condo that has a car elevator to my living room."

Within seconds, the elevator doors open directly into the apartment's private garage, where another Porsche already sits.

Several other videos by that resident's neighbors follow a similar pattern, showing the elevator ride and culminating in the big reveal: the "carport" that is, in fact, a sprawling apartment overlooking the ocean.

"Before the early 2000s, we did not have any branded residences," says El Chaar. "The phenomenon started in the 2000s. This period introduced us to social media, where our lives moved from being most of the time private to being public." Prior to the social media era, people did not have the same propensity to boost their ego by owning possessions and boasting about them online.

Influencer culture has only amplified the urge to flaunt. The most followed influencers document the good life, including private jet travel, Loro Piana outfits, and homes featured in Architectural Digest. Research by Launchmetric shows that luxury influencer collaborations generate 81% higher engagement rates compared to brand-created content alone—and branded residences are essentially luxury influencer content waiting to happen, benefiting both the brand and the resident.

Ultimately, a car parked in a living room is not just about convenience. It is perfectly suited for social media content.

Schreyer says branded residences represent a more subtle form of modern status signaling. "It is less about showing a logo and more about signaling access, taste, and lifestyle alignment. Living inside a branded environment communicates that the consumer identifies so strongly with a brand's philosophy that they want it embedded into their everyday life."

What separates successful branded residences from flops

Behind the extravagance of branded towers lies a defined formula for success.

"Buyers are willing to pay and are paying the price premiums as long as all those elements are in place and the project authentically portrays what the brand is all about. But adding a logo alone will not guarantee faster sell-outs or price premiums," Payne says.

Many successful brands entering the sector already have a hand in interior design collections or luxury furnishings. Fashion houses like Fendi design furniture lines, while automakers like Aston Martin and Pagani have collaborated on yacht and aviation interiors.

"When you select a brand that has nothing to do with interiors, has no DNA in real estate, people are not dumb," El Chaar says. "They understand you have nothing to do with real estate."

Demographics matter as well.

"A buyer in their 30s is likely to be more attracted to a Lamborghini-branded home with modern architecture, cool interiors, and amenities like car lifts and bars, than someone in their 50s who may prefer a Ritz-Carlton residence with world-class service, fine-dining restaurants, and traditional marble everywhere," Payne says.

"The gap comes about when developers and the brands fail to deliver on those brochure promises. That's when buyers feel the disconnect between expectation and reality," he adds.

In February, owners at Aston Martin Residences sued the developer, German Coto, accusing him of self-dealing, fraud, and building defects, including alleged water damage.

"Unit Owners purchased their residences relying on promises of luxurious amenities – including a marina, a helipad, and exclusive beach club privileges," the civil lawsuit states. "Defendants not only failed to deliver these promised amenities but also systematically looted Association funds."

The ongoing lawsuit seeks more than $5 million in damages and a full accounting of the building's finances. Coto did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Then there is the golden rule of real estate: location, location, location. Most branded residences cluster in global cities such as Miami, Dubai, and London, where international buyers treat real estate as both an investment and a lifestyle purchase. These markets share characteristics that make them magnets for branded projects: warm climates, favorable or zero state income tax regimes, large populations of foreign buyers, and sustained influxes of wealth from other regions.

A recognizable marque can also provide reassurance in an unfamiliar country. "The international buyer coming into a new city, you don't know the developer, the city, the streets that well," El Chaar says. "So sometimes you trust the brands that you know very well."

Developers can charge a premium for that trust, though El Chaar warns that pushing prices too far can lead to failure. "The maximum you can increase your price by is 20–30% in a co-branded project. I've seen many developers try to sell at 50%, 60%, or 70% higher, and the project never gets sold, and most of the time, the project never gets built."

For El Chaar, branded residences will continue to experience robust demand as long as social media platforms exist. However, this strong demand will persist only if the right elements of a project—including pricing, location, and brand—are properly implemented. "If you make a mistake in any of these elements, the project will not be a success," he says.

What the next wave could bring

As the sector expands, consultants say the next wave of branded residences could include technology companies, wellness brands, or other lifestyle categories.

"As consumers increasingly define themselves by what they eat and the tech they use, it's not hard to imagine a future where brands like Apple translate their design ethos and innovation into residential living," Itani says.

Schreyer believes the rise of branded residences reflects a broader transformation in luxury culture itself. "As technology becomes more dominant and digital life more fragmented, curated physical experiences, meaningful human interaction, hospitality, and community become more valuable," he says.

Luxury brands are increasingly moving beyond products and into what Schreyer calls the "human interface"—clubs, wellness, residences, and immersive environments.